Earth Letters
by Shadow Wasserson
Summary: Toph can't read, and that's really too bad.


Disclaimer: I wish Avatar was mine, 'cause then I'd be the CEO of Viacom, and I'd be rich. But it isn't, and I'm not.

A/N: Just another little brain-fart idea. Not my best, but hey.

Takes place around the time of 'The Firebending Masters.'

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**Earth Letters**

"_But mother," said the young bison. "Why did the spirits choose blue paint for the sky?"_

"_Blue is the color of serenity." replied his mother. "The color of calm and peace. When Tian created the people of the air, he wanted his people to always-_

"S'up?"

Teo looked up from the scroll with a start. "Oh," he said. "Hey Toph."

"What are you doing?" Toph inclined her head slightly towards Teo.

"Oh, I'm reading." Teo smiled and extended the scroll towards the earthbender. "Want to see?"

"Uh, no thanks. Paper really isn't that interesting."

"Oh." Teo fell silent for a moment, flustered. He had forgotten. "Well, it's really fascinating. It's a collection of airbender fables. You see, there were tons of airbender writings in the Northern Temple too, but the ones here are different stories. I've already read "The Bison Who Ate of Flesh," and "The Golden Moonpeach" and "The Badgertoad Prince" and-"

"Yeah, uh-huh." Toph huffed. "Sounds great. See you later."

Toph got up to leave, but Teo called out to her. "Toph… I… I could read it to you. If you want. They're really nice stories."

Toph frowned. "It's okay, really."

"Oh." Teo watched the blind girl leave, the gears in his head turning. She really couldn't read. But she seemed to see everything else just fine with her earthbending. He suppposed it made sense, in a way. Words had no shape, no mass for her to feel.

Teo couldn't imagine not reading. Long hours of bad weather for gliding, of rain or snow or fierce wind, had given Teo plenty of opportunity to glean the temple of its books and scrolls. In fact, he considered himself, with a bit of pride, pretty knowledgeable in Air Nomad writing. As a young boy, he loved reading the stories, which he now recognized as myth and legend mixed up with history and allegory. Lala the Curious Lemur and Tales of the Wandering Winds had provided him with much entertainment on such days, and he didn't know what he would have done without them. Been bored out of his mind, probably.

Feeling sorry for Toph, Teo looked at the ground. Could she use earthbending to read? Were Toph's senses that fine? Teo frowned. This would need further investigation.

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"Toph! Toph, hey!"

"What?" asked Toph, sounding annoyed as she turned to face Teo.

"Toph, look at this," said Teo breathlessly as he wheeled up. He held out an object.

"Yeah, that's great," said Toph. "Another book, right?"

"No, no, it's something for you."

Toph frowned, and reached out a hand, brushing her fingertips along what Teo was holding. It was a block of wood, probably taken from somewhere in the temple, with bits of dirt arranged in piles on top.

"Very nice. What is it?"

"It's to help you read."

Toph snorted. "I can't read, Wheelie-boy. In case you haven't noticed, I'm blind. Can't see."

"Oh, I know! I know, so I made a way for you to read! I made characters out of dirt. Can you feel them? I put them on the wood, so you could feel the difference. Is it working? If it isn't, I could try with sand, or mud, or put them on a stone slab instead. There are so many variables to try..."

"Hang on there, Chatterbox. What?"

"Look. Or feel, I guess."

Teo grabbed Toph's hand, and she stiffened. Teo moved her fingers over the earthen characters he had sculpted, making sure not to smudge them.

"Do you feel the shape of the characters? They say: 'My name is Toph. See?" Teo brushed Toph's fingers over each character in turn. "My. Name. Is. Toph."

"Those shapes are characters?" asked Toph, looking puzzled.

"Yes! Each character is a word. Or, well, sometimes more than one character is a word. The characters in a line make a sentence."

"So, every word has its own character?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"And you have to learn them all?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Pssh. Who needs it?" Toph jerked her hand away from Teo. "That's way too many characters."

"Toph, reading is amazing!" said Teo. "If you learn how to read, you could learn things about far away places, and the adventures other people have had long ago! It's great! I think you'd like it a lot."

Toph scowled. "Look, I'm not going to learn to read, okay? Twinkletoes will be back soon from his little vacation, and then we're going to go right back to training. No time for any sissy stuff."

Teo's face fell. "Oh," he said, looking down at the plank of wood. "Well, I mean, if you want to, some time in the future maybe, I'd be happy to teach you."

Teo put the plank down and wheeled away, crestfallen. He didn't see Toph pick up the board and run her fingers over the sculpted characters, mouthing to herself: _My name is Toph. My name is Toph. My name is Toph…_


End file.
